Posts Tagged ‘life’

According to a mini survey that I did last year, this was the TOP 3rd reason why people, in spite of knowing that being active and choosing to eat nutritious food is beneficial to them, do not do so.

In our day and age where information about health and fitness flourish, and personal trainers, fitness coaches, and gyms abound everywhere, obesity and non-communicable diseases still abound.

I’m sure that if I go to a room with 100 people and ask them if it is important to stay physically active and choose nutritious foods, at least 99 of them would say ‘Yes, it is!’
But people still don’t exercise regularly and over-eat more junk, and one reason they would claim is that they are not disciplined.

Frankly, I think it’s just a ‘dead-end’ excuse that people say to escape responsibility and taking action.

I say ‘dead-end’ because when people say…

“I don’t have the discipline to exercise.”“I am not disciplined in my eating.”“I can’t discipline myself to reduce stress and sleep more.”“I’m not disciplined to stop smoking/drinking excessively.”
..etc.,

…I don’t think they expect – or want – to be disciplined at that very moment.

We don’t wake up one morning and suddenly become very disciplined.
But there are steps to take to develop self discipline every single day.

So the question to ask yourself is not,“Am I disciplined to eat right/move more/take care of my health, etc.”

Because it’s not about whether you are disciplined or not.

>>> The better question to ask is,

“Am I willing to take consistent small steps to develop self-discipline so that I can reach my goal?”

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Here are the THREE (3) Secrets to Become Disciplined and Stay Fit:

1.) Clarity.
Be clear about what you want to achieve, and why you want to achieve it. Sure, you might say “I want to lose X amount of pounds” or maybe “I want to gain some muscle and look good with and without my shirt on” but this is not clear enough.

Be specific on what you want to achieve and why. And write it down on a piece of paper or your journal.

People don’t have the discipline to be fit and healthy because they don’t really know what they want. Ask yourself, “What will happen after I lose weight?” or “What are the things that I can do if I gain more muscle/get stronger?”

The answers to questions like these is what matters more than the actual #gains from exercising and eating right.

2.) Direction.
No one ever woke up one day and magically became disciplined. It takes consistent time and effort towards the right direction. Think of it as climbing the stairs. You want to get on top, but you have to take one step at a time. Otherwise you’ll risk tripping, falling, or not get there at all.

Each single small step is what matters. But you have to determine the SPECIFIC path you should take to get there.

Discipline is about making these small decisions and actions a habit.

3.) Resilience.
Change will never be easy. You will face adversity. There will be challenging and tough times. What matters is not how you don’t face obstacles at all, but how you get past through them!

So expect adversity. Not everything will go as planned. But remember that getting back up EVERY TIME you fall is what develops the discipline.

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Be clear about your purpose.

Establish individual steps that you will take one at a time.

And expect adversity and realize that everything won’t go your way, but what matters is how you overcome each obstacle and continue.

I know that YOU already know that you need to stay active and eat nutritious foods 80% of the time so that you can live life to the full for yourself and for your loved ones.

I also know that YOU already know enough about exercising everyday and watching your diet.

So as a Coach, I’m here not to bombard you with more information about what to eat, or exercise videos, or whatnot.
But I’m here to guide you and coach you through these three secrets to get disciplined, so that you can crush your #fitnessjourney and be your finest self.

I don’t just give my clients workout programs to follow. That’s the easy part. It’s easy to do, and it’s easy to miss.

What I do is I provide CLARITY in purpose, direction, and motivation to be resilient. Because with clarity comes power.

If you’re someone who have tried so many things to improve your health and fitness, but nothing seems to work. Or you think you just need someone to guide you by the hand to finally develop the discipline, simply answer the short form below and we’ll see how we can team up so that you can develop the discipline to achieve your goals and more:

It was only my second time celebrating one more special day in a year apart from my birthday, Christmas and New Year. Growing up, Father’s Day was a simple time to get together as a family, have a nice Sunday lunch and appreciate having an awesome Dad in our midst. My wife’s family is big in celebrations and traditions, which is not a bad thing at all. She literally prepared a feast yesterday!

My wife, toddler and I had a ‘Surf and Turf’ for lunch, and we had a few relatives and friends come over for dinner with lasagna, pizza, ribs, and everyone’s favorite ‘tuxedo cake.’

After dinner I had a few minutes of time to myself (because I didn’t have to wash the dishes as usual) and decided to log in my intake using the app MyFitnessPal. Lo and behold, I ate 788 calories more than my daily allowance!

The whole point why I’m sharing this to you is to show that it happens to ALL of us.

It’s easy to over-eat calories and go overboard our daily allowances.

But it’s not the end of the world.

Here are THREE (3) things we can all learn from eating and celebrating on special days:

1) Live First, Count Later.

I didn’t restrict myself to eating only 3200 calories (my current daily allowance with physical activity) yesterday. The first thing in my agenda was to spend time with family and have fun with them at the table. I believe that getting fitter and healthier through exercise and healthy eating is meant to improve our lives, and not overcome it.

Everyday in social media you’ll see a ‘fitness guru’ with 6-pack abs working out 7 days a week and eating only carrots and kale. How does their life outside of Instagram and Facebook look like? How is their social relationships? These people basically work and live in the gym. Sure, it’s good to be inspired by them but people like you and I have our own lives to live.

If you have a party coming up, go for it. If you’re too stressed out from work and you tend to stress-eat, let it be. My point is to not the restrictions in your “Fitness Journey” affect whatever is happening in your life. Let life happen.

“Getting fitter and healthier through exercise and healthy eating is meant to improve our lives, and not overcome it.”

2) You Won’t Know Until You Count.

I still did count my calories AFTER I knew that I probably ate a lot than I need to fuel my body. And it does not matter. I didn’t count my calories to bring myself down and feel bad after. I only counted for ONE PURPOSE: Awareness.

After logging in the estimates of what I consumed, I had an idea that I ate almost 800 (I probably under-estimated) extra calories than my daily allowance! It’s a big number, but I also know that I keep an average of 300 calorie deficit on most days because I’m currently trying to cut down. This means that my WEEKLY caloric allowance is still on point. I have dropped over 15 lbs. the past three months and I know that one day of going overboard won’t get me off-track. There’s no pressure. I didn’t stress about restricting myself to a certain number.

Know your numbers daily AND weekly. If you do, you don’t have to put the pressure on yourself every single day to maintain your daily allowance. Does it mean you have to count everyday? No. But at least do it ONCE to get an idea of how much calories you really eat on an average day.

I honestly can’t remember the last time I had lasagna before yesterday. Pizza, maybe 3 to 4 weeks ago. Those sumptuous, fall-off-the bone ribs, probably a month or so.

For me, I look at these types of foods as “special”: They are specially more flavorful and they specially have more calories, so they are meant to be eaten only on special occasions!

The problem with most people nowadays is that our consumer-culture makes ANY kind of food readily available to us, and everyone can be an instant “foodie.” I think this is what takes away the “special-ness” of certain food items, it is easy to have these special foods take over what is supposed to be healthy, wholesome, staple foods in our regular diets. Are you following where I’m getting at?

Believe me, I have met a young female gym member recently who confessed that she eats chocolate cake for breakfast every single day. I have also met a guy in his 50’s who snacks on deep fried prawns almost every night. I have nothing against these types of foods. I eat them myself! But not treating them as ‘special’ foods and instead making them part of your regular diet won’t do any help.

Think about all the food and drinks present in your daily diet. List them down on a piece of paper. Then see if each item is specially flavorful and calorific and could be dedicated for special occasions. The rest should be nutritious, wholesome foods that you eat to fuel your body properly everyday.

“Some Foods are specially more flavorful and they specially have more calories, so they are meant to be eaten only on special occasions!”

Looking at food and how it plays a part in our lives will take away the stress of not keeping up with your calories and macros, and removes the fear of gaining extra pounds the day after.

In a fitness enthusiast’s ideal world, this would be the every-day checklist forever:

> Wake-Up
> Workout
> Repeat

Unfortunately, that world doesn’t exist.

Our schedules get messed up, we get sick, projects take longer than expected, injuries and emergencies happen, and so on. It doesn’t even have to be a negative reason to miss workouts.
I have had clients who miss weeks and months of training due to work promotion or because their business is booming, or because they have to welcome a new family member, or simply because they have to go on a nice vacation on a sunny island.

There could be numerous reasons for this fantasy checklist to not exist.

Sometimes it gets frustrating especially when you were keeping up a pretty impressive routine, then it suddenly had to stop.

Thankfully, you don’t have to sulk in despair – it won’t do any good, anyway. If for any reason you had to take a recess from training, here are some things to keep in mind when it’s time to get back on track:

1.) Go Easy.
I know, you want to jump straight to when you left off. You weren’t away for so long anyway, so why not?
You may be familiar with the Training Principle called “Progressive Overload” which states that your strength and conditioning increases slowly and gradually as you keep overloading the stimulus (exercise). Well, you may not have heard of the Principle of Reversibility, which as it name implies, means that any adaptation that has taken place as a result of your training will be reversed once you stop training!
The speedat which reversibility happens depend on a lot of factors, but even pro-athletes are not exempted! On average, training loss occurs at about one-third the rate of the gains. Some sports skills can be lost in one to two weeks.

The good news is, reversibility stops once you get back to training! But the best way is to take the Principle of Progressive Overload into consideration.

Start easy but challenging, then go from there.

2.) Build your Base.
Base strength refers not just to how much your muscles can lift, or how long your heart can keep pumping, but also includes your ligaments, tendons, joints, and bones. These guys take a little longer time to adapt and recover to the stresses of training, and are more subtle. Avoid high-intensity movements that involve a lot of jumping, plyometrics, fast movements, or heavy maximum lifts. If you took the time off because of an injury, you should even be more careful.

3.) Take your Time.The longer your break was, the more time you need to give yourself to come back to where you left off. Unless you have an upcoming competition, or a deadline to show your six-pack, you don’t need to rush! Other factors such as fitness level, age, body type, health history, and so on affects the time it will take for you to get back. Remember that exercise is also physical stress to your body, and doing it too much too quickly can cause more harm than good.

Make small progressive increments. Consistency is the key to success, and patient hard work pays off.

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It happens to everyone.
Even elite athletes fall off their training.
Life just has its ups and downs.

Remember that the goal of your training is to improve your quality of life. If life happens, then so be it. Get back to training and you know that you’ll reap the rewards of a physically active lifestyle in its time.

“Squats are like life.It’s about standing up when something
heavy keeps you down.”

“I never used the words “I can’t”…I would just say “I will try.” That’s how I lived my life, just trying to do my best – everyday.

I can do what I need to do, and I’m proud of it…

…I can shovel my own driveway when it snows, thanks to the power-training.

…my grandchildren, I can lift them up without any problem.

…and the best of all, I don’t need any help when I carry my groceries.

That’s what [lifting] is about – it’s about life.”

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Who says you have to stop lifting after hitting a certain age?

Willie Murphy, the strong woman on the video, started lifting weights at age 50.

One of the largest determinants in quality of life and functional independence is STRENGTH. Unfortunately, a lot of people who were once strong suddenly stop when they hit 70, 60, 50, and some even 40 or younger.

A lot of functional everyday movements which are relevant especially as we age are based on STRENGTH:
– walking, climbing stairs, etc.

– sitting down and standing up.

– carrying groceries, kids, etc.

– keeping our balance.

At the gym I work at as a Personal Trainer, I focus on helping people with muscle or joint pains be able to exercise pain-free. Most of these people – both men and women- are aged 50 and over. They come to me with these Top 3 goals in mind:

1) To get stronger.

2) To improve stamina/endurance.

3) To lose some weight.

I’ve had people who just started going to the gym later in life. I’ve had people who had been active before, maybe played some sports when they were younger, but had an injury or life just happened and stopped, but wanted to get back.

It is possible to ‘get back’ to being physically active.

It is beneficial to be active and get stronger especially later in life.

Just like Willie, always keep a perspective of ‘trying.’ Try to do your best everyday. Try to be better most days. Just try.

You will not know what your body is capable of until you try. With proper guidance and training, you can succeed to be better and get stronger, even over 50.

Lifting is not just about losing weight, or looking good… it’s about improving your quality of LIFE.

Never EVER let your mistakes bring you down. They say experience is the best teacher and we can learn from our mistakes. Remember that there is always a second chance – another chance to improve, to do better, and to succeed.

Just look at this soccer player from Maldives, Ashad Ali Adubarey. He had this chance to score a goal for his team with a penalty kick – a one on one match between him and the goal keeper. While running towards the ball, he slipped and lost his momentum. But that did not stop him. He quickly got up and continued a few more steps toward the ball. He proceeded to kick, and scored a goal to beat Afghanistan. Some reporters say that he intentionally feigned the fall, but you could watch the video for yourself to see for yourself if it was a total wipe out or a fake.

The point is that, even after such a bad fall, we can always get up and try harder.